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The arrest of a Chinese tech executive in Canada on Saturday was the most recent and public chapter of an ongoing battle between the U.S. government and one of the world’s biggest tech companies — Huawei.

The arrest, which came on U.S. extradition charges, featured a heightened level of intrigue due to the profile of the person arrested: Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer and daughter of Huawei’s secretive founder, Ren Zhengfei, who is one of the most powerful businessmen in China. The arrest came amid reports that Huawei had been sending U.S. technology to Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions against the country.

Huawei is not a household name in the U.S., but the company has emerged as one of the largest tech firms in the world in the past decade thanks to its success in producing telecommunications equipment including cell towers and equipment for next-generation 5G wireless networks. Huawei is also second in the global smartphone market, having surpassed Apple earlier in 2018.

“Huawei is effectively an arm of the Chinese government, and it's more than capable of stealing information from U.S. officials by hacking its devices," Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in February when he introduced legislation to block the U.S. government from buying telecom equipment from Huawei or ZTE, another Chinese hardware maker. President Donald Trump signed the the bill in August.

The arrest of the Huawei executive is a BIG deal in China and is probably being underplayed in the US news cycle. Equivalent of an Apple or Facebook exec being arrested in China. https://t.co/Aoh1szWUNx

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Despite its size and global reach, only 38 percent of Americans said they had heard of Huawei, according to the survey company Morning Consult. The company’s name has also been something of a mystery for some in the West who wonder how to pronounce it. The company even made a humorous video for the U.K. about how to pronounce Huawei.

China’s rise as a global power has coincided with the emergence of the internet as a major avenue for state-based cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare, making the origins and security of network hardware of the particular importance.

Huawei, which is based in Shenzhen, China, is now the largest telecom equipment maker in the world, but some countries outside the U.S. have moved to limit how much of its hardware ends up in its networks out of security concerns. In August, Australia banned Huawei from supplying equipment for new 5G mobile networks. In late November, New Zealand followed suit. Huawei was also reportedly excluded from talks with India on developing its 5G network.

While tension between China and the U.S. over trade and cyber-espionage is not particular to the Trump administration, relations between the two countries have grown more strained due to the president’s willingness to implement tariffs — which are the subject of ongoing talks.

Huawei is a Communist Party spy agency thinly vieled as a telecom company. Its surveillance networks span the globe & its clients are rogue regimes such as Iran, Syria, North Korea & Cuba. The arrest of Huawei’s CFO Wanzhou Meng in Canada is both an opportunity & a challenge.

“There is ample evidence to suggest that no major Chinese company is independent of the Chinese government and Communist Party – and Huawei, which China’s government and military tout as a ‘national champion,’ is no exception,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement.

“It has been clear for some time that Huawei, like ZTE, poses a threat to our national security. Now we know that Huawei, like ZTE, has violated U.S. sanctions law,” Warner continued. “It's my hope that the Trump Administration will hold Huawei fully accountable for breaking sanctions law, as it failed to do in the case of ZTE.”

The arrest of Meng, however, made far bigger headlines in the U.S. than any ZTE accusations or fines. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN each led their respective websites on Thursday with the news. (NBC News did so as well.)

The growing rift between Huawei and the U.S. has major ramifications for the 5G technology that is expected to provide the connectivity needed for a variety of future technologies, including the "Internet of Things" and self-driving cars.

Tom Kellermann, chief cybersecurity officer for security firm Carbon Black, said that Huawei is just one example of the broader issue created by the combination of evolving technology and geopolitical tension.

"Unless the U.S. and China stop competing with each other to be global hegemonies, this is going to be a systemic, long-term problem facing the U.S. and her allies for years to come," Kellermann said.

Jason Abbruzzese

Jason Abbruzzese is the senior editor for technology news at NBC News Digital.